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One of the true overlooked treasures of American roots music, songwriter Bill Neely toiled away in obscurity for decades, performing a distinctive style of “hillbilly blues” that incorporates country, blues, and folk traditions in creating an entirely unique sound. The son of a Texas sharecropper, Neely came to music through the influence of his mother, a Nashville native who played guitar, piano, and accordion.

It was a meeting with the legendary Jimmie Rodgers, however, that sealed Neely’s fate. The famous “Blue Yodeler” taught the youngster how to make a C chord on the guitar, a story retold by Neely’s with his classic song “On A Blackland Farm.” Quitting school at the tender age of fourteen, Neely wandered the country, riding the rails and making money where he could. He worked the mines and the fields, spent time in the Army during WWII and the Korean War, later working as a cook and as a carpenter.

Bill Neely's Texas Law & Justice

Twenty years later, Neely settled down in Texas with a family, working as a truck driver and a restaurateur while writing songs based on his experience and travels. During the 1960s, Neely became part of an early Austin Texas music scene, playing in local clubs both solo and with folks like Janis Joplin, Tracy Nelson, and the great Mance Lipscomb. When Neely died in 1990 of leukemia at the age of 74, he had been playing guitar for 60 years and writing his own songs for over 40 years.

Yet Neely only recorded one album, 1974's On A Blackland Farm, reissued on CD in 2001 by Arhoolie Records with several “bonus” tracks as Texas Law & Justice.

All of this background on Neely is necessary to understand the man who crafted the honest and authentic music preserved on disc by Texas Law & Justice. While great country blues artists like Mississippi Fred McDowell and Lightnin' Hopkins enjoyed significant careers late in life, Neely remained largely unknown during the same time period. Yet I can hear echoes of Neely’s distinctive guitar style and lyrical abilities in such Texas troubadours as Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark, acclaimed masters of the form...

Satan's Burning Hell

Songs like “A Soldier’s Thoughts” and “Crying The Blues Over You” are masterpieces of hillbilly blues, while the vivid imagery of “Skid Row” underlines an intelligent tale of rural innocence lost in the big city. “Satan’s Burning Hell” is a gospel-tinged gem and “Blues On Ellem” is as credentialed a Texas-styled blues tune as you'll ever hear. “Never Left The Lone Star State” is a wonderful road trip through Neely’s memories while the two instrumentals included on Texas Law & Justice are inspired raves that showcase Neely’s not inconsiderable six-string skills.

The one song here not written by Neely, but rather penned by a relative in 1930 – the haunting title cut “Texas Law And Justice” – is performed with great passion and energy and is all the more chilling considering the state’s dismal record of state-sanctioned executions. The recording of Texas Law & Justice is raw, primitive even by the standards of the day, almost a field recording in the vein of Muddy Waters' Plantation album, Neely sometimes accompanied by an additional guitarist or a bass player, but no drums and, as often as not, just Neely with his guitar and haunting vocals. Harmonica is provided on a couple of songs by Austin musician and songwriter Powell St. John, who would later form Mother Earth with singer Tracy Nelson.

The Reverend's Bottom Line

Too raw and realistic by today’s country music standards, Bill Neely nevertheless wrote songs of enduring life and spirit, infusing them with humor and tempered by years of hard won experience. Artistically, I’d rank Neely as the equivalent of great bluesmen like Mississippi John Hurt and Big Bill Broonzy. That Neely’s talents remain a secret is an artistic crime only partially remedied by the CD release of Texas Law & Justice. With a sound that would appeal to fans of both country blues and Americana, Bill Neely is ripe for rediscovery. (Arhoolie Records, released November 6, 2001)

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